“The problems that weigh heavily on the hearts of men are the same today as in the ages past. What is man? — [who am I?] — What is the meaning and purpose of life?” (Pope Benedict XVI from General Audience 11 May 2011)

The above statement by Benedict XVI is an age old reality. As we grow from childhood dependent upon our parents and family and begin the search for “who we are” as individuals we begin to ask these very important questions. And the reality of this great question on the purpose of life is that it is a good and necessary question. The willingness to look beyond the superficial and into the deepness of the heart and soul where relationships are discovered is the difficult and often avoided area by many people, including people of faith.
And in truth, the superficial is much easier and often more sensually satisfying in the short term moments of life. The idea of delayed gratification is thrown away quickly with the rationalization of; “Why wait for something that may happen when I can take and do the lesser of the something right now?” But at the same time, we know deep down the goods that come from preparing, sacrificing and waiting are what truly brings peace and joy into our hearts.
Pope Benedict XVI in the same audience continued, “The “digital” man, like the cave man, seeks in the religious experience ways to overcome his finiteness and to guarantee his precarious adventure on earth. Moreover, life without a transcendent horizon would not have its full meaning and happiness, for which we all seek, is spontaneously projected towards the future in a tomorrow that has yet to come.”
This seeking, this quest for the greater is a found in the discovery of a relationship of love that is “beyond” the natural experience and into a conversation that draws out a reality of the infinite in the lives of each person. It is a discovery of a relationship of movement towards a greater desire for unity where the joy and happiness God calls forth in life is lived to the fullest.
There is an experience I will often share with young men asking questions and discerning a call to the priesthood or those young women doing the same for consecrated life. In my first year in seminary one of my classmates and someone who became of good friend announced he was leaving formation. Personally, for me, this was devastating. He was a good, positive and genuine man who I believed would be a great priest and yet in seeking the greater with an open heart to God’s call he knew God had a different plan for him, (and I am sure his wife and children would agree). But it was only in prayer, a deep conversation of relationship with God and others, was he able to discern and choose the path God called him to live. Pope Benedict reminds us in this same talk, “St Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest theologians of history, defines prayer as “an expression of man’s desire for God””
God has called each of us to a mission in life, a mission that is unrepeatable by any other person and we discover this mission in our prayer of blessing and adoration…in our desire for God’s presence and relationship…our response to the greater. It is a discussion of love where Jesus calls us his friends (Jn 15:15) and invites us to speak with him and search him out in prayer as a friend. As Pope Benedict points out, “I can be forced to kneel — a condition of indigence and slavery — but I can also kneel spontaneously, declaring my limitations and therefore my being in need of Another. To him I declare I am weak, needy, “a sinner”.” It is in the recognition of my limitations where I search for the other in hope and blessing—through conversation, through prayer knowing it is here the glory of love, the glory of God is found.
God bless
Fr. Mark

Man bears within him a thirst for the infinite, a longing for eternity, a quest for beauty, a desire for love, a need for light and for truth which impel him towards the Absolute; man bears within him the desire for God. And man knows, in a certain way, that he can turn to God, he knows he can pray to him. (Pope Benedict XVI)